Polymerization of methyl methacrylate by single component catalyst of lanthanocene chloride O(C 2H 4C 5H 3CH 3) 2LnCl (Ln=Y, Nd, Sm)

• Published in: European polymer journal Vol. 36; no. 11; pp. 2375 - 2380
• Main Authors: Junquan, Sun, Zhida, Pan, Yu, Zhong, Weiqiu, Hu, Shilin, Yang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 2000; Elsevier
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Exact sciences and technology; Kinetics; Lanthanocene; Methyl methacrylate; Organic polymers; Physicochemistry of polymers; Polymerization; Preparation, kinetics, thermodynamics, mechanism and catalysts; Single component catalyst; Polymerization; Lanthanocene; Single component catalyst; Kinetics; Methyl methacrylate; Bulk polymerization; Temperature effect; Lanthanum complex; Methyl methacrylate polymer; Complex catalyst polymerization; Complex catalyst; Experimental study; Syndiotactic polymer; Metallocene; Solution polymerization; Stereospecificity; Chloro complex; Stereospecific polymerization; Catalyst activity
• ISSN: 0014-3057; 1873-1945
• DOI: 10.1016/S0014-3057(00)00005-7

A novel single component catalyst of lanthanocene chloride O(C 2H 4C 5H 3CH 3) 2LnCl (Ln=Y, Nd, Sm) was used to initiate the polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) in bulk and in toluene solution system. The effects of temperature, time and molar ratio of MMA/Catalyst were studied in detail. The results showed that higher temperature and longer time were favorable for increasing the catalytic activities. Both polymerization conversion of MMA and molecular weight (MW) of PMMA formed in toluene are lower than those from bulk polymerization, which gives M w as high as 1.52×10 6, and MMA conversion more than 80%. The syndiotacticity of PMMA prepared at a temperature ranging from 20°C to 80°C is about 65%. GPC (gel permeation chromatography) shows that the MW distribution of PMMA obtained in bulk polymerization is as narrow as 1.3. Kinetic studies indicate that the polymerization rate is a first-order dependence on the concentration of MMA and catalyst, respectively. The overall activation energy of polymerization is 33.9 kJ/mol.